• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.185-198
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• 2003

The concept of performance based seismic design has been gradually accepted by the earthquake engineering profession recently, in which the cost-effectiveness criterion is one of the most important principles and more attention is paid to the structural performance at the inelastic stage. Since there are many uncertainties in seismic design, reliability analysis is a major task in performance based seismic design. However, structural reliability analysis may be very costly and time consuming because the limit state function is usually a highly nonlinear implicit function with respect to the basic design variables, especially for the complex large-scale structures for dynamic and nonlinear analysis. Understanding statistical properties of the structural inelastic deformation, which is the aim of the present paper, is helpful to develop an efficient approximate approach of reliability analysis. The present paper studies the statistical properties of the maximum elastoplastic story drift of steel frames subjected to earthquake load. The randomness of earthquake load, dead load, live load, steel elastic modulus, yield strength and structural member dimensions are considered. Possible probability distributions for the maximum story are evaluated using K-S test. The results show that the choice of the probability distribution for the maximum elastoplastic story drift of steel frames is related to the mean value of the maximum elastoplastic story drift. When the mean drift is small (less than 0.3%), an extreme value type I distribution is the best choice. However, for large drifts (more than 0.35%), an extreme value type II distribution is best.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.731-743
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• 2016

Plastic behaviors, based on the von Mises yield criterion, of circular discs containing a purely elastic, circular inclusion under uniform temperature loading are studied with the finite element analysis. Temperature-dependent mechanical properties are considered for the matrix material only. In addition to analyzing the plane stress and plane strain disc, a 3D thin disc and cylinder are also analyzed to compare the plane problems. We determined the elastic irreversible temperature and global plastic collapse temperature by the finite element calculations for the plane and 3D problem. In addition to the global plastic collapse, for the elastically hard case, the plane stress problem and 3D thin disc may exhibit a local plastic collapse, i.e. significant pile up along the thickness direction, near the inclusion-matrix interface. The pileup cannot be correctly modeled by the plane stress analysis. Furthermore, due to numerical difficulties originated from large deformation, only the lower bound of global plastic collapse temperature of the plane stress problem can be identified. Without considerations of temperature-dependent mechanical properties, the von Mises stress in the matrix would be largely overestimated.

• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 1989

In this study, the finite element method for nonlinear problems is developed theroretically to see the design loads of foundation, when the circular plate resting on elasto-viscoplastic soil medium is loaded axisymmetrically. The paper shows that the plastic zone of soil medium is displayed at the near the edge of plate at the first place; when the plastic zone of soil medium is linked around central axis, the external load is termed by allowable load or design load, and then the contact pressure changes abruptly, in this case it is approved to be the risk of shear failure. The results of numerical analysis using the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion, and experimental analysis for a appropriate safety factor are approximative, but numerical results are smaller than the value based on Terzaghi's theory.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.727-741
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• 2014

The functionally graded beam (FGB) is investigated in this study on both dynamic and static loading in case of resting on a soil medium rather than on the usual Winkler-Pasternak elastic foundation. The powerful ABAQUS software was used to model the problem applying finite element method. In the present study, two different soil models are taken into account. In the first model, the soil is assumed to be an elastic plane stress medium. In the second soil model, the Drucker-Prager yield criterion, which is one of the most well-known elastic-perfectly plastic constitutive models, is used for modelling the soil medium. The results are shown to evaluate the effects of the different soil models, stiffness values of the elastic soil medium on the normal and shear stress and free vibration properties. A comparison was made to those from the existing literature. Numerical results show that considering real soil as a continuum space affects the results of the bending and the modal properties significantly.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.649-660
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• 1998

Steel making in Mini Mill consists of three major processing stages: molten steel making in an electric arc fuenace, slab casting in a continuous caster, and hot rolling in a finishing mill. Each processing stage has its own lot grouping criterion. However, these criteria in three stages are conflicting with each other. Therefore, delveloping on efficient lot grouping algorithm to enhance the overall productivity of the Mini Mill is an extremely difficult task. The algorithm proposed in this paper is divided into three steps hierarchically: change grouping, cast grouping, and roll grouping. An efficient charge grouping heuristic is developed by exploiting the characteristics of the orders, the processing constraints and the requirements for the downstream stages. In order to maximaize the productivity of the continuous casters, each cast must contain as many charges as possible. Based on the constraint satisfaction problem technique, an efficient cast grouping heuristic is developed. Each roll consists of two casts satisfying the constraints for rolling. The roll grouping problem is formulated as a weighted non-bipartite matching problem, and an optimal roll grouping algorithm is developed. The proposed algorithm is programmed with C language and tested on a SUN Workstation with real data obtained from the H steel works. Through the computational experiment, the algorithm is verified to yield quite satisfactory solutions within a few minutes.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.841-854
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• 2014

This study aimed to analyze the selection criteria and priority settings for solid culture medium used in hydroponic crop production in farm households. Expert brain storming was carried out to extract solid culture medium selection criteria for hydroponic farming. As a result, 3 criteria of economy (cost), productivity, and environment, and 9 factors were extracted. A questionnaire survey of hydroponic farm households was conducted in Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and Chooncheong provinces. AHP analysis of the hydroponic solid culture medium selection criteria identified productivity as the most important criterion, chosen by 58.7% of the respondents, followed by economy (28.4%) and environment (12.9%). The 9 factors were rated by the respondents in the following decreasing order of importance: 1, crop yield (28.3%); 2, pest occurrence (18.5%); 3, maintenance/management costs (12.0%); 4, convenience of maintenance/management (13.4%); 5, initial investment cost (11.6%); 6, material energy consumption (6.5%); 7, waste recyclability (4.0%); 8, waste disposal costs (3.4%); and 9 environmental emissions (1.81%). These results imply that hydroponic farm households consider cultivation-related quality factors more important than economic factors, such as price of culture medium or installation cost.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.729-742
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• 2015

The aim of the present work was the study of instability in a loose sand from Les Dunes beach in Ain Beninan, Algeria, where the Boumerdes earthquake occurred in 2003. This earthquake caused significant structural damages and claimed the lives of many people. Damages caused to infrastructures were strongly related to phenomena of liquefaction. The study was based on the results of two drained and six undrained triaxial tests over a local sand collected in a region where liquefaction occurred. All the tests hereby analyzed followed compression stress-paths in monotonic conditions and the specimens were isotropically consolidated, since the objective was to study the instability due to static loading as part of a more general project, which also included cyclic studies. The instability was modeled with the second-order work increment criterion. The definition of the instability line for Les Dunes sand and its relation with yield surfaces allowed the identification of the region of potential instability and helped in the evaluation of the susceptibility of soils to liquefy under undrained conditions and its modeling. The dilatancy rate was studied in the points where instability began. Some mixed tests were also simulated, starting with drained conditions and then changing to undrained conditions at different time steps.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.515-525
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• 2019

The calculation of active earth pressure behind retaining wall is a typical three-dimensional (3D) problem with spatial effects. With the help of limit analysis, this paper firstly deduces the internal energy dissipation power equations and various external forces power equations of the 3D retaining wall under the nonlinear strength condition, such as to establish the work-energy balance equation. The pseudo-static method is used to consider the effect of earthquake on active earth pressure in horizontal state. The failure mode is a 3D curvilinear cone failure mechanism. For the different width of the retaining wall, the plane strain block is inserted in the symmetric plane. By optimizing all parameters, the maximum value of active earth pressure is calculated. In order to verify the validity of the new expressions obtained by the paper, the solutions are compared with previously published solutions. Agreement shows that the new expressions are effective. The results of different parameters are given in the forms of figures to analysis the influence caused by nonlinear strength parameters.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.4
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• pp.431-443
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• 2019

The present paper illustrates a numerical investigation on the failure behaviour of ring-stiffened cylinder subjected to external hydrostatic pressure. The published test data of steel welded ring-stiffened cylinder are surveyed and collected. Eight test models are chosen for the verification of the modelling and FE analyses procedures. The imperfection as the consequences of the fabrication processes, such as initial geometric deformation and residual stresses due to welding and cold forming, which reduced the ultimate strength, are simulated. The results show that the collapse pressure and failure mode predicted by the nonlinear FE analyses agree acceptably with the experimental results. In addition, the failure mode parameter obtained from the characteristic pressure such as interframe buckling pressure known as local buckling pressure, overall buckling pressure, and yield pressure are also examined through the collected data and shows a good correlation. A parametric study is then conducted to confirm the failure progression as the basic parameters such as the shell radius, thickness, overall length of the compartment, and stiffener spacing are varied.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.761-777
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• 2021

This study presents a numerical investigation on the sensitivity of electromechanical (EM) impedance responses to inner damaged concrete of a prestressed anchorage zone. Firstly, the Ottosen yield criterion is selected to simulate the plasticity behavior of the concrete anchorage zone under the compressive loading. Secondly, several overloading cases are selected to analyze inner damage formations in the concrete of the anchorage zone. Using a finite element (FE) model of the anchorage zone, the relationship between applied forces and stresses is analyzed to illustrate inner plasticity regions in concrete induced by the overloading. Thirdly, EM impedance responses of surface-mounted PZT (lead-zirconate-titanate) sensors are numerically acquired before and after concrete damage occurrence in the anchorage zone. The variation of impedance responses is estimated using the RMSD (root-mean-square-deviation) damage metric to quantify the sensitivity of the signals to inner damaged concrete. Lastly, a novel PZT skin, which can measure impedance signatures in predetermined frequency ranges, is designed for the anchorage zone to sensitively monitor the EM impedance signals of the inner damaged concrete. The feasibility of the proposed method is numerically evaluated for a series of damage cases of the anchorage zone. The results reveal that the proposed impedance-based method is promising for monitoring inner damaged concrete in anchorage zones.